1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to a developing device and an image forming apparatus including the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A developing device includes a developing roller and a brush roller. The developing roller develops an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive drum with toner. The brush roller, which has bristles made of fiber on its surface, supplies the toner to the developing roller. Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2000-258987 discloses one such developing device.
In the aforementioned developing device, however, the toner is trapped between the bristles of the brush roller by contact between the developing roller and the brush roller, resulting in a loss of elasticity of the bristles. This will cause a lack of stability of supply of the toner to the developing roller.